Executive Director Patsy Davis encourages the community to get involved in this campaign to protect our region’s most vulnerable. “It does a heart good to help a neighbor in need, and to give to causes we care about,” Davis says. “We are asking for your help to meet the growing need this year and we appreciate people giving what they can. Every contribution, every act of generosity counts.”

The Mountain Projects Emergency Fund was established to address the urgent and immediate needs of neighbors in crisis. Generally, these folks need a stabilizing solution to avoid traumatizing situations for themselves and their families. Some recent examples include:

A pregnant woman requesting weekend emergency shelter to avoid sleeping outside

A Head Start family facing utility shut-off due to pandemic-related unemployment

Meals for low-income senior citizens over weekends and holidays

Home rehabilitation for individuals without running water or working toilets

Diapers for babies whose parents are in-between paychecks

A mattress for a veteran who lost all belongings in a house fire

On a daily basis, the Emergency Fund helps Mountain Projects clients resolve short-term crisis situations, so our staff can then help the client access life-changing services.

Mountain Projects also provides: meals and food boxes for the food insecure, preschool for low-income families, heat & weatherization for people in need, housing rehabs that remedy unsafe housing, accessibility for seniors and the disabled, affordable housing for the essential workforce, substance abuse prevention services, access to affordable healthcare options, transportation for veterans, seniors, students and the disabled.

Donations will help our community make it through a challenging winter. Here's the link to give: https://mountainprojects.org/?product=support-urgent-needs

Founded in 1965, Mountain Projects was chartered as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and currently serves more than 15,000 people each year. Ninety-seven percent of clients served by Mountain Projects are the working poor, disabled, elderly or handicapped. The organization employs 140 staff members and maintains offices in Sylva and Waynesville

As a Community Action Agency, Mountain Projects supports and implements programs designed to improve social, economic, educational, health, emotional and environmental aspects of life for families and individuals in the western mountain region. Those initiatives range from Head Start and food assistance to a variety of programs for senior citizens, and from public transportation to housing rehabilitation.

For information and stories about Mountain Projects’ work in Haywood and Jackson Counties, visit MountainProjects.org and Mountain Projects’ Facebook page. To donate, visit MountainProjects.org, call 828-452-1447 or send a mail-in contribution to Mountain Projects, 2177 Asheville Road, Waynesville NC 28786.